Stefan was glad that his brother had a new thing to obsess about. Damon was not stable since Katherine's return and it was better for all of them if he had something to distract him. But this was going too far, Stefan realised as he watched Damon grabbing that poor boy's shoulders to compel him.

"Damon, no," Stefan said harshly. "Someone could get hurt."

Damon looked at him over his shoulder. "It's just a tiny, little experiment, okay?"

"No," Stefan replied, while the poor boy stared blankly through Damon. "Compel him to pick up a fight with someone and I compel him to forget about it."

Damon rolled his eyes and withdrew his hands from the boy's shoulders. "Okay, fine!" He turned on the spot and walked away, while Stefan took care of the poor boy, making sure he would return to whatever he was doing before Damon had tried to pull him into something that surely would not end well.

When Stefan searched for his brother, he found Damon trying to compel another boy. Stefan rubbed his temple before hurrying over to his brother.

"No," he said again, pointedly, and pushed Damon away from the boy. Stefan stared into the blank eyes of Damon's victim and told him to: "Go back to whatever you were doing and forget about this." Then he let him go. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he turned to face Damon. "I can do that the whole night."

Damon huffed. "Your life must be so boring."

"Not boring enough to obsess about Zombie-werewolves," Stefan said with a smile. "But if you want to find out more about this stuff, then don't drag innocent people into this and do it yourself."

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Damon leant forward. "But I could explode."

Stefan kept smiling. "Maybe the ambiguously supernatural mystery uncle can take care of that."

"Okay," Damon said slowly. "You want me to do this myself? Okay. That'll be fun. Because I'm the master of deliberate provocation."

"I'm not regretting this," Stefan said.

"Not yet." Damon waved at him, slowly walking backwards, as if giving Stefan a last chance to change his mind. He whirled around a bit too dramatically and disappeared in the crowd, searching for Mason Lockwood.

Stefan shook his head, before he followed Damon.

Mason Lockwood had stopped at the ring toss and was apparently bored enough to throw his money away for the game. Damon sneaked up to him from behind.

"Aren't you too old for this?"

Mason looked at him, tilted his head slightly and obviously tried to figure out who his opposite was. "It's for a good purpose," he said with a quick glance on his rings. He started turning them distractedly. "I guess… Most of this stuff is a charity event. And you seem a bit old for a highschool carnival, too."

"You're never too old for charity," Damon replied sweetly. That was apparently enough to earn Mason's sympathy, because he smiled at Damon and reached out his free hand.

"We haven't met before, have we? I'm Mason Lockwood."

Damon shook Mason's hand, but did not notice any particular strength, surely because Mason would not want to break any hands by accident.

"Damon," he introduced himself and squeezed Mason's hand a bit tighter, but that only ended their handshake. "Damon Salvatore. Very nice meeting someone my age here."

Mason frowned a little, as if he tried really hard to remember something, the name, probably. "Salvatore, yeah? How's the old Zach doing?" He remembered a bit too much.

"He's on vacation." The answer slipped out without Damon's permission. "Left me and my brother to protect that old, dusty mansion from nasty rats."

Mason nodded wordlessly, his eyes drifting back to his rings. Damon leant against the counter and waved at the girl that sold the rings.

"Hey, give me a couple of these," he demanded and slammed a five-dollar bill on the counter. As he received his rings, he flashed a challenging smirk at Mason. "Up for a competition?"

"Not sending your brother this time?" Mason asked, referring to Stefan's recent and especially poor attempt to blow his ninja turtle cover.

"I'm not in danger to break your hand this time," Damon said and although he was serious, Mason did not seem to believe him. He only laughed. And he should rather enjoy his last laugh tonight. Damon was ready to drive Mason mad just with rings, and that was a far better attempt to blow whatever supernatural it was that Mason needed to cover.

Mason aimed and threw his ring with an expression so full of determination that it was incredibly amusing to see it falling apart as Damon's ring hit his in the air. Both rings crashed to the floor.

"Oops," Damon said pointedly when Mason looked at him disbelievingly. "Looks like we crossed paths at the wrong moment."

"Looks like," Mason answered coldly, probably already close to crossing the line to rage and wrath. He aimed with his second ring and watched Damon's movements out of the corner of his eye, certainly waiting for him to make the first move. Damon pretended to throw, but held on to his ring after Mason let go of his. Like this he pushed Mason closer to the line to rage and wrath.

"Sorry," Damon drawled. Mason glared at him, as if he had not just scored a decent number of points. To increase this annoyance, Damon threw his ring so that it landed on top of Mason's. "Wow, looks like our rings are really into each other."

Mason's smile was crooked and Damon was sure that he rolled his eyes as he turned to throw his last ring.

The line was getting thinner with every second.

Damon threw his last ring at Mason's head and crossed the line. Mason looked at him so full of anger that the emotion visibly flared up in his blue eyes, bringing a flash of gold onto the iris. He blinked and it was gone, but Damon knew that he had not imagined it. He just needed to stir this fire a little more.

Mason clenched his teeth and asked, "What was that about?"

"I'm so sorry. Your enormous head was in my way," Damon teased, hoping for Mason to lose the last string to sanity. Sadly, he only received a stiff smile.

"I won," Mason said, letting the words roll off his tongue with relish that made anger curl in Damon's stomach. "It was nice disgracing you, Damon."

Damon glared after Mason, who walked away with his head held up high like he just received a gold medal and not the highest score at a game of ring tossing.

"You better watch your way or you trip over your solar-system-sized ego," Damon called after him. Mason just lifted his hand to wave, not even turning around. Damon was close to crossing his line of anger very soon. The girl behind the counter tugged at his sleeve. "What?"

"Uhm, your friend's prize," she said and handed a fluffy teddy bear out to Damon. "Thanks for playing."

"I scored, too. Where's my prize?"

"I thought you were doing a competition?" The girl smiled innocently, and if Damon had not been trying to be a good boy for a change, he would have sucked every drop of blood out of her. Luckily for her, it was more important to follow Mason. Damon was not finished with him, anyway.

Damon caught up to Mason and stepped into his way. He held the teddy bear in front of Mason's eyes. In a high and disgustingly sweet voice he said, "Why did you leave me?"

"I'm too old for teddy bears."

Damon lowered the teddy bear to smirk at Mason. "You're too old for a highschool carnival, too."

"Fuck you."

Damon had rediscovered the thin line and threw the teddy bear over it at Mason's head. Mason caught it, but dug his fingers tightly enough into the fluff to rip the stuffed animal apart.

"Give it to your nephew," Damon suggested. "He surely needs something that cradles him to sleep after his father burned to death. Or are you taking care of that?"

For the glimpse of a second, Damon thought Mason would bite off the teddy bear's head. But before the slightest glimmer of joy could change Damon's mood, Mason laughed. Soft and truly amused. Instead of turning into the new evil of Mystic Falls that Damon could have conquered to earn sympathies, Mason Lockwood turned out to be the reincarnation of fucking Yoda.

"You're funny, dude," Mason said and patted Damon's shoulder in passing. Shaking his head, he simply walked away. No one walked away like this when Damon Salvatore wanted them to lose their temper.

But what could he do to push Mason over this unbelievingly thick line?

The idea hit him brutally.

Damon lunged at Mason and did the one thing that lately seemed to upset everyone.

He kissed Mason. Straight on the mouth.

And for a deliciously long moment he felt inhumanely hot lips moving against his. Before he could feel confusion at this, a fist hit his jaw with enough power to send him straight to Mexico. Damon did not fake that he stumbled backwards, but that he slumped to the ground. From down there he was in the perfect position to watch Mason's eyes changing with wrath, and the way Mason jumped at him reminded him more of an animal than a human.

Damon frowned. "Uh-oh…"

Stefan waited on the parking lot for Damon, rubbing his temple and simultaneously grinning mischievously. He could not help it, considering the bruise in his brother's face that was not visible anymore when he stopped in front of Stefan.

"Shut up, Stefan."

"I'm sorry, no," Stefan said, close to bursting into laughter. "You kissed him? You kissed him? What exactly is this proving?"

"That your girlfriend is out of danger?"

Stefan did not lose his smile. Damon crossed his arms in defence.

"The result is what matters. He totally freaked out. He managed to break my jaw. The way he moves is not human… and his eyes… there's something about his eyes…"

"That makes your heart beat faster?" Stefan could not keep it any longer when Damon flashed him his coldest glance. He started laughing heavier than he had in weeks.

"Not funny, Stefan," Damon growled. "Especially, since you're the one with a certain passion for Bon Jovi."

Lifting his hands apologetically, Stefan said, "At least you were having a good time."

Damon nodded. "Just wait for the second date."